Thoughtful, creative study and reflection in solitude and silence.
Thoughtful in that it is skeptical and uncertain and questioning and dissatisfied.
Creative in that it continuously digs deeper to expand outward and build upward.
Study and reflection always alternatively in tandem.
Solitude meaning alone. I have not so much learned to be alone as I have discovered that regardless of my surroundings I am by myself.
Silence meaning a quiet, open mind. The foundational drone of a crowded coffee shop or the traffic as I walk to work is more conducive to quieting and opening my mind than if I were at home with bills and dinner and a cluttered garage and a bag of chips and a nap and a TV all screaming at me for attention.
Thoughtful, creative study and reflection in solitude and silence.
Some would say the following is more important:
Structured, social order and growth within a harmonious consensus.
Structured in that powerful, often unmovable men and/or groups and/or ideas and/or governments manage and at times force the process.
Social in that peoples are thought to take precedence over individuals.
Order and growth because we are optimistically, (and sometimes wildly), overconfident in our ability to deliver widespread material well-being.
Harmonious meaning the powerful are in agreement.
Consensus meaning inconsequential minority dissent.
Structured, social order and growth within a harmonious consensus.
There are far too many unpredictable, unforeseeable consequences from the innumerable complexities of social interaction for any powerful anything to dictate order and/or consistently guide growth.
But I am seeing how powerful whatevers suppress individual thought by dividing peoples into their respective factions and insisting that your factional identity is your individual identity. And we go along because we are uncomfortable with solitude and silence.
A factional identity is potentially overbearing and cumbersome and it is slow to change; but a factional identity can also serve to balance and check power, both in other factions and within itself.
An individual identity requires constant reevaluation because it is uncertain, skeptical, questioning, and dissatisfied with the status quo; thus, an individual identity has difficulty asserting itself.
A factional identity properly absorbed by an individual can become a warm, cozy, comfortable hibernation from thoughtful effort.
An individual identity is to find oneself clinging to an expansive rock face, (that requires constant movement to find cracks and crevices as footholds and handholds), in search of a ledge; only to find that all the ledges are crumbling.
If an individual falls, they will frequently find a faction there to catch them.
Everyone falls, on occasion.
Having fallen, an individual comes to understand that they can also purposely let go in order to fall backwards into the waiting, protective arms of a faction. Once this is understood it becomes easier to let go; or jump.
As an individual clambering around on crumbling ledges you may on occasion force faction members below to look up and wonder what in the world you are doing up there.
Individual autonomy is difficult because it requires thoughtful, creative study and reflection in solitude and silence.
The promise of structured, social order and growth within a harmonious consensus is attractive because it requires little or no effort on the part of the individual.
But if we allow individual autonomy to drive order and growth instead of depending upon the powerful to provide order and growth, perhaps the additional complexity of innumerable decision makers would better adjust for the unpredictable, unforeseeable consequences that are often a result of oversimplified politics and bureaucracy.
First we must convince individuals that thoughtful, creative study and reflection in solitude and silence is beneficial; and necessary.